The ruminations of a mom over a cup of coffee in the morning. Thoughts on motherhood, husbands, work, and all the wonderful and perplexing moments in a woman's life.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

I just paid $80 to fill my tank.

The truth is, I stopped pumping when it hit $80. I was nowhere near a full tank, let alone topping it off. Psychologically, I just couldn't add the last gallon or so.

Gratitude post #4: I am grateful for being in a financial situation where this bill annoys me and makes me indignant instead of crippling me. Of course, that includes the gratitude to my parents for teaching me about delayed gratification, the long line of teachers and mentors that helped make me marketable, myself for not giving into temptation and the spendthrift opportunities, my husband for being an excellent money-manager and also coming from a background of delayed gratification, and Aesop for his story "The Ant and the Grasshopper."

I'd also like to thank the Academy....Oh, um, that's something else....

You know, I'd always wondered why grateful was not spelled greatful, since I always felt that there was a sense of greatness attched to gratefulness. Then I realized that greatfulness is not actually a word, that the actual word is gratitude, and that gratitude starts with the same four letters as grateful. Boy do I feel stupid, now!!!

Oh, yeah, sticker shock. But for my 12 gallon tank, it's rare to put more than 11 gallons in. But i've never seen $44 bucks before.

And it's not like the car goes further than before. It still only goes about 500 miles on a tank, with a reserve gallon or two.

At least my new commute is 8 miles instead of 43. So i'm not filling up every week anymore.

40+ mpg isn't difficult. My 2000 Saturn has a 1.9 liter engine with a 5 speed manual. I bought it used with 150,000 miles on it for about $1,400. It's moved me 70,000 miles, costing me windshield wipers, a set of tires with an alignment, and a quart of oil every 4,000 miles. So, it's costing under $0.15 per mile for everything - purchase price, insurance, gas, repairs. Gas dominates for me, but for most people, purchase price dominates. That's why the US government lets you deduct over $0.40 per mile for business use. I make out like a bandit.

Sure, i'd like a turbo diesel that gets 60 mpg and tows 2,000 lbs. Who wouldn't?